North Carolina's schools aren’t making the grade according to the recent Quality Counts report from Education Week. 

It's a state-by-state assessment of public education, and it gives North Carolina a C- in the latest evaluation.

The average grade for educational performance in the nation was a C, the same as last year.

North Carolina scored below that average in three categories including chance for success, school finance and K-12 achievement; that puts it 40th in the country.

Sterling Lloyd with Education Week Research Center says North Carolina dropped in the rankings when the report changed its grading criteria in recent years.

"We’ve focused more on quantitative performance metrics and North Carolina struggles on some of these indicators, particularly those that have to do with family income and poverty and factors that help students get off to a good start early in their school careers," Lloyd says.

Massachusetts had the highest grade, a B+, while New Mexico and Nevada received the lowest grades with Ds.